Right Joy-con Controller as a Presentation Remote

Introduction

I had a change to get in touch the Logitech Spotlight, which is a presentation remote. It's not only a remote send next page/last page, but also using gyroscope to control mouse cursor and make a spotlight effect on screen. I feel it's a surprising tool to give a presentation for audiences, but it's not cheap.

At playing my Nintendo Switch, I suddenly got a idea to turn my Nintendo Switch right Joy-Con into a presentation remote like Logitech Spotlight. So I searched online for Joy-Con driver which can read controller's input. Then I found a great python library on GitHub called Joycon-Python (https://github.com/tocoteron/joycon-python) that allows Python to read Joycon's gyroscope data. It also transfers gyroscope data into a much readable format for normal usage.

After found the Joycon driver, I used Python tkinter to draw a transparent circle with black background on screen which I called Spotlight mode. Just like Logitech Spotlight, by holding right Joy-Con's R or ZR button and moving your hand, the mouse cursor surround a spotlight effect will move with your hand's movement too. I also created another effect that shows only yellow transparent circle called Highlight mode.

Instructions/steps

0. Prepare a Nintendo Switch right Joy-Con, and connected to PC via Bluetooth

1. Download the code ( https://github.com/leoshome/Joycon_Presentation_Remote/blob/main/joycon_presentation_remote.py )

2. prepare python package

pip install joycon-python hidapi pyglm pyautogui pywin32

3. Execute the code on your Windows PC

python joycon_presentation_remote.py

Usage

Joy-Con(R)’s button mapping:

• Hold “R” or “ZR” → Spotlight mode / Highlight(yellow circle) mode
• Press “X” → Page Up
• Press “B” → Page Down
• Press “Y” or “A” → Right click
• Press “SR” → switch Spotlight mode or Highlight mode
• Press “+” → Pressed if movement is not stable or not working
• Press “Home” → End joycon_presentation_remote.py

Demo video